


when the dust settles

by rosebud1000



Series: rosebud rambles [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya sugar, Angst, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Plagg Cares (Miraculous Ladybug), post-hawkmoth, post-reveal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26078986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosebud1000/pseuds/rosebud1000
Summary: A series of interconnected one-shots following the same post-Hawkmoth defeat universe. Ladybug's identity has been publicly revealed, and now it's up to our protagonists to heal.Each chapter features a different friendship or some lovesquare.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Plagg, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Tikki
Series: rosebud rambles [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891150
Comments: 7
Kudos: 76





	1. it'll all make sense again

**Author's Note:**

> [Secret for the Mad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vDdx1dba6c) by dodie
> 
> Um, okay, this was supposed to be a single one-shot. But I really love this au/future so I'm adding. I think that [this drabble](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25016227/chapters/62002168) works as a prequel, and it's the one that got my brain going with this au. Enjoy!

There are dents in the top of the cardboard from where Alya has been holding it. Creases stretch from the corners of the lid, nail marks dug into the thin plastic surrounding it.  _ Breathe, _ she reminds herself.  _ Loosen your grip, loosen up. She invited you over. _

She spread her hands over the box, trying futility to hide the evidence of her anxiety. She hadn’t wanted to go empty-handed. Pastries would be useless, flowers belonged at weddings or funerals, and homework would be insensitive. So she’d found a box of chocolates, buttoned up her coat, and stepped into the beginning-of-spring cold.

For the first time she can recall, Alya doesn’t go in through the bakery. It’s closed. Instead, she goes through the proper apartment entrance, her footsteps echoing up a story of stairs.

Marinette opens the door with a smile, her hair out of its pigtails and loose around her face. “It’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you, too.” Alya passes the box of chocolates over. This is the first time she’s seen Marinette wear sweatpants—Chat Noir themed, of course. She looks like a normal teenage girl, not someone who had her identity as a superhero revealed two days ago.

Marinette leads her upstairs, placing the chocolates on her desk amid a pile of fabric and books.

“So, uh, how are you?” Alya asks as Marinette pulls cushions onto the floor for them to sit on. Neither of them knows when it started, but when they hang out, they always sit on the floor.

“I’ve been better.” She sits, fussing with her hair. As she moves a piece behind her ear, a black stud catches the light. Alya glances away.

There’s a kwami somewhere in this room. Ladybug—Marinette’s—kwami. Part of Alya wants to ask to meet her, but she decides not to, for now.

“I noticed you removed commenting on the Ladyblog.”

Alya shrugs. “People were saying some pretty mean things.”

“I saw.”

“It’s not true—what they were saying about you,” She adds, picking at the fuzzy rug beneath her. There were thousands of comments condemning Ladybug for taking too long to defeat Hawkmoth, or for protecting her partner’s identity from strangers who felt they had the right to know.

“Or what they were saying about you. There’s a lot of magic around identities.”

There’s nothing Alya can do but nod, leaving them once again in silence. They don’t know what to do with themselves, how to proceed from here. What do you say when your best friend was a superhero? What do you say when your best friend who used to fangirl over you now knows it was you?

Alya’s mind stretches back to the first episode of  _ Hannah Montana, _ and she immediately dismisses the thought. This is nothing like that.

“Do you— do you want to talk about it?”

Marinette relaxes instantly, her hands dropping into her lap. She traces the lime green pawprint on her thigh as she begins to speak. Her voice wobbles, fear taking the shape of words and hanging in the air around them.

Alya pushes through the bubble, placing a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. She doesn’t need to see the tears to know that they’re there.

Marinette has had trouble sleeping; she doesn’t want to face her own nightmares. Her mom is looking for a therapist, but it can be hard to find someone who’s taking new clients. Chat Noir is doing better than she expected, and is already talking about telling people he knows his identity.

When Alya’s arms are tight around her, when she hasn’t spoken for some time, Marinette wiggles out, no longer crying.

She shows Alya her newest sewing project, and a sketchbook she kept as Ladybug. It contains drawings of Paris from all angles and hundreds more of Chat Noir. Who, Alya learns, once launched himself into a chimney when a pigeon flew at him. She meets Tikki, who waves and nibbles a macaron, staying close to Marinette.

Alya knows that she doesn’t know what Marinette is going through. She knows that she’ll never understand it. But she also knows that she’s going to be there for her. And sometimes, that’s enough.


	2. a promise of hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is going to stay at the hotel with Chloe. They get a chance to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, how did you know  
> That's all we need  
> A promise of hope  
> Is enough to feel free  
> -Ready Now, Dodie Clark

The bag he is holding is heavy enough that the handles dig uncomfortably into his palms. Adrien adjusts his grip, relieving the pressure. Plagg sits atop the pile, blinking up at him and muttering to himself. Surprisingly, he’s not eating any of the camembert Marinette had packed into the bag this morning. He has, however, made himself a nest out of Adrien’s pajama shirt.

Adrien stops outside the door, which is pointless since it’s glass and Chloe’s already seen him. She jumps from her spot on the bottom step as he enters the hotel lobby.

“Adricher! You made it! Come, I’ll show you your room.”

Before Adrien can respond, she’s pushing him into an elevator and pressing buttons. She continues talking, so fast that she should’ve run out of air and Adrien can’t quite understand her. He’s felt like that a lot lately: earth started spinning faster than normal, and he still needs to finish the sentence, _ my father is Hawkmoth. _

Of course, he has already said that, over a day ago, to Ladybug.

“And here it is,” Chloe declares, pushing open a door. Adrien’s not sure when they left the elevator.

She paces the room, throwing open the curtains and fluffing the pillows. “The closet is fully stocked, I hardly thought you’d want your old clothes. I tried to keep with whatever style you have, but anything you don’t like we can return—or donate.” She spun around, ponytail flying. “That’s a thing we should do.”

“Thanks.” Chloe is right, he doesn’t want any of his old clothes. And he knows that replacing his wardrobe is her way of showing affection. That and asking him to stay at the hotel until his situation’s more sorted.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d want a piano, and I couldn’t get you the big room anyway, but there’s a limited-access lobby that has one. It might need to be tuned, I’ll have someone call—”

“It’s okay. I don’t want it anyway.” Adrien can’t imagine playing piano right now. He can’t imagine doing much of anything.

“Oh, Adrien,” Chloe sighs. Her posture relaxes. “I forgot to ask. Are you okay?”

“Um.” His throat feels dry, his eyes watery. He tries to blink it away. He’s cried enough over the past day.

“I’m not good at this whole ‘comfort’ thing.” Chloe pulls on his arm, sitting on the couch. He follows. “I’m sorry.”

“I was Chat Noir.”

His words sit in the room, both of them absorbing it. It’s the first time he’s told someone. He showed Marinette, his father figured it out.

Chloe smiles. “Yeah, he was always my favorite anyway.”

Adrien laughs at the blatant lie, letting his head fall onto Chloe’s shoulder. Her laughter joins his, her hand brushing hair off his forehead.

“Adrien, that’s— I’m sorry.” She shifts, crossing her legs under herself. “Is there anything I can do? Dupain-Cheng, she’s treating this right, isn’t she? If not, I swear I will fight her, magical yoyo or not—”

“You don’t need to fight anyone. Marinette’s great.”

Chloe raises an eyebrow.

“She doesn’t understand and she doesn’t have to. I’m glad she doesn’t.”

“But I do.” Chloe grabs his hands. “Look. I might not be the best person, but I do know what it’s like to have an awful parent. And it sucks that he was Hawkmoth, it really does. Especially since you were Chat. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s been a terrible dad. Sure, you were on opposite sides of a magical war, but that doesn’t take away from all the other crappy stuff. You get that, right?”

“Yeah,” he says. “I get that.”

“Good. Now, we’re going to do something fun and distracting.” She pauses, eyeing him. “But first, you’re going to go change out of the smelly, two-day-old clothes. And I’m going to make some calls, because God knows I am not a qualified therapist.”

Adrien stands, waiting for Chloe to leave before he opens the wardrobe. He grabs the first outfit he sees, happy to note that most of the clothes look like something he’d pick for himself.

_ Everything is going to be okay.  _ He has Marinette, and Chloe, and Plagg. He walks in a circle around the room, seizing it up. He picks up a brochure titled  _ The Tourist’s Guide to Akumas _ and stuffs it between the couch cushions. There’s a lot for him to think about— his dad, Ladybug, his future. But right now, Chloe’s distraction is sounding like a really good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There were a lot of options for this chapter. I ultimately decided that this was the best way, because as fun as Adrien's inevitable "I should've known he was Hawkmoth" crisis is, that's something Marinette should deal with, not Chloe.


	3. but that was then, and this is now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Let it be safe once again to lie down and sleep  
> Make it easy, make it simple and be with me"

Marinette leans against her railing, cold air stinging her ears and nose. She isn’t kept up by nightmares, not really. She just isn’t tired. She knows there’s probably more to it, that’s it’s another thing to add to the list to tell the therapist. But the air feels nice and reminds her of the good parts of being Ladybug.

“Feline alright, princess?”

She looks up to find Adrien sitting on the railing. He jumps down.

“You probably shouldn’t be transformed,” she points out. Neither of them should, with the media the way it is.

“It’s dark out.” He turns his gaze where hers is: the lights reflecting off the Seine. 

It doesn’t feel like she saved Paris, but it is her city. And there’s comfort in knowing that certain parts of it will stay the same.

“My father was Hawkmoth. And I didn’t know. I— I should have known.”

“No, _minou_.” Marinette pulls him into a hug as he shakes. “You’ve been a perfect Chat Noir. I couldn’t have asked for a better one.”

“I should have known.”

“It’s over. You don’t have to worry anymore; it’s over.”

“I—”

She doesn’t say anything more, because it’s her presence that matters, not her words. She’s cried on enough shoulders to know that. His hair is soft and his arms wrap around her tight— she doesn’t want to let go either. Slowly, his breathing evens out, his sobs turn into hiccups. She lifts her head enough to talk without being muffled.

“I love you, you know. I had a crush on Adrien Agreste for years, really. And Chat Noir’s been my best friend, I can’t imagine myself without either of you. I’m just… madly in love with you.”

Adrien looks up, his red eyes meeting hers. “I never got over Ladybug, not for real. And Marinette, you’re one of the best people I know. I love you too, my lady.”

Despite the number of times she’s told herself, despite seeing him transform, it’s not until that moment that it seems real: Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir. His hand is on the back of her neck, tilting her head up to meet him. Their lips are cold from the night air, but their breaths are hot, their kisses soft and uncertain before yielding to something different.

They stay there until the warmth they share is taken over by the morning frost, when the skyline glows pink with sunrise. They talk about nothing, the small moments they shared between akumas, all the times she tried to confess. Their lips meet again and again, relishing in the dream-like state of where they are: between  _ before  _ and  _ after _ .


End file.
